Finless
by PrincessTadashi
Summary: Being only part mer, Hiro may have been born without fins and scales like his older brother, Tadashi. But on the day that he's to come of age, he can't help but hope that maybe he'll finally get the tail he's been dreaming of his entire life. (Part 2 of the Big Hero Mer series. Hiro / Ezra Bridger: Hezra; mild Fred/Tadashi: Fredashi)


Hiro Hamada awoke on his sixteenth birthday, an excited humming feeling in his stomach. Today was an extremely important day for him. While in human culture coming of age usually came at eighteen, in mer mythology, today was the day that he officially came of age as a merman. Why was something out of mythology so important to a very human looking boy? Because Hiro wasn't just human-thanks to either genes or a family curse (the exact circumstances had become a bit muddled over the years), he was part mer as well. There weren't any physical signs of it (not like his older brother, Tadashi, who had been born with a tail and been confined to a pool for most of his life until a true love's kiss from his human boyfriend, Fred, had rendered him able to become human or mer at will.) Still, ever since he'd been little he'd been able to hold his breath underwater for extended periods of time and always been as at home in the water as a fish was. The truth was, even though he'd seen all the trouble his brother had been through because he'd been stuck as a mer, there were few things Hiro wished more for in the world than a tail of his own. Not that he'd ever been able to admit that out loud to his brother-that would have sounded selfish or even cruel when he had been afforded so much more freedom and safety by having been born with two legs. Still, even as he rubs the sleep out of his eyes, he can't help but feel cautiously excited. On sixteenth birthdays, it was said that mers sometimes went through physical changes-their hair or tail changing colors, maybe even developing new special abilities. Hiro knew that there was very little chance that he'd actually grow a tail, and the fact that he'd woken up still as a human was slightly disappointing. Still, he hadn't been in the water yet, and he silently prayed that maybe somehow he'd experience some special sort of magic today.

He was startled out of his thoughts by the sound of knocking on his door.

"Come in!" he calls, knowing immediately who it would be. His guess was quite right-moments later the door opens and he sees his older brother poking his head in the door.

"Good morning!" Tadashi says softly, coming in bearing a tray loaded with breakfast food-he'd apparently gone all out for this, probably because this was only the second year that he'd been able to actually leave the pool to do something special for his brother on his birthday and he seemed to be trying to make up for lost time.

"Wow, Dashi, thank you!" Despite the fact that his mind was on anything but breakfast at the moment, Hiro makes sure to properly express his gratitude, knowing how much this meant to his elder sibling.

"Happy birthday," Tadashi says softly, gently pecking his brother on the top of his head as he puts the tray down on the bedside table before standing back and looking over the raven haired teen with a slightly misty-eyed expression. "My baby brother… A full fledged merman today. I can't believe you're all grown up…"

"I'll always be your _otouto_ , Dashi," Hiro reassures him, pulling him into a warm hug. "And you'll always be my _nii-chan_!"

"I know," Tadashi reassures him, even though he seemed comforted by the words as he hugs his younger sibling back.

"So, can we go swimming?" Hiro asks eagerly as soon as he finally lets him go.

"First, you eat," Tadashi lightly reprimands him, although he was smiling to let him know that he wasn't really upset. "I know you're eager to see what kind of changes you might be having today, but I'm not letting you go through a life-altering event like that on an empty stomach!"

"You sound like Aunt Cass!" Hiro tells him, playfully rolling his eyes.

"And you know Aunt Cass will murder me if I let you do this without eating first and she finds out about it later," Tadashi answers firmly-their Aunt, owning and running a cafe, hadn't been able to be home this morning as the girl who was supposed to take the morning shift had called off sick at last minute and she'd had to open it up. They'd both known that Hiro would be too impatient to wait for her to get home to get in the water, so she'd made her elder nephew promise to make sure that the younger boy least ate a good breakfast first.

"Fine." Hiro rolls his eyes before reaching for a homemade doughnut, still fresh and warm from the fryer. "If I eat this, will you be happy?"

"Make it two of those and we'll have a deal," Tadashi bargains.

"Deal!" Hiro happily agrees.

"And don't scarf it down!" the elder boy scolds him when he starts to try to cram the whole thing into his mouth at once to speed up the process. "If you choke we're going to have a funeral instead of a birthday to celebrate!"

Hiro rolls his eyes again, but forces himself to take the pastry in smaller bites.

"Much better." Tadashi nods his head in approval.

"Okay, can we go now?" Hiro begs the second that he's finally done eating.

"I guess that's the best I can hope for right now, so yes, we can go," Tadsahi sighs, although he seems to be fighting a smile of his own.

Hiro throws off the covers and races over to his dresser to pull out his favorite pair of swim shorts, ducking into the bathroom that was adjacent to his own room to quickly change out of his pajamas and into them. "Ready!" he cries as soon as he's finished, heading back out into his room.

"Hiro…" Tadashi raises an eyebrow. "This is a really special occasion-do you really want to go into it with your hair looking like _that_?"

"What's wrong with my hair?" Hiro asks.

"You didn't even bother to comb it!"

"This is who I am, bro! I'm facing the future looking exactly like who I intend to be!"

Tadashi makes disapproving clucking noises like a mother hen and momentarily fusses with the younger boy's hair, trying to take care of some of the worst of the mess, before finally sighing in defeat and saying, "I guess that will have to do."

"Not all of us are as vain about our appearances as you are, Dashi," Hiro teases him.

"I'm not vain!" Tadashi protests, turning bright red. "Some of us just like to look nice and put on a more professional appearance!"

"And it has nothing at all to do with impressing your boyfriend," Hiro drawls.

"Hey, you're not allowed to talk since you have one of your own now!" Tadashi fires back.

Hiro couldn't help but smile at the mention of his blue-haired boyfriend. He'd met Ezra at SFIT, where he and Tadashi both went to college (Hiro was something of a genius, starting university at only the age of fourteen.) Ezra Bridger, age seventeen, was still in high school, but he and Hiro had met on a campus tour when the two had quite literally bumped into each other. Usually Hiro didn't talk to anyone outside his and Tadashi's close friend group (not that he was rude or unfriendly, he was just private and preferred to stick to the people he knew he could trust-something which was important when you had as big a secret to protect as the Hamadas did.) He wasn't sure if he would have even remembered Ezra after he'd apologized and left, but something about the way that his eyes were as deep blue as the sea had fascinated him and stuck in his memory. When he'd spotted the teen again that night at Aunt Cass' cafe and Tadashi had insisted that they go over and properly introduce themselves (he should have known then that his older brother was trying to match make him), the two had gotten talking and discovered a mutual love of robots and working with mechanical things, as well as a passion for protecting ocean life (for Hiro, an inborn instinct, for Ezra an interest that had been sparked when visiting an ocean life park as a child and seeing a killer whale for the first time.) One thing had led to another and soon the two had started hanging out together after school and on the weekends. A few months into the relationship, Ezra had confessed to having more romantic feelings for his friend and Hiro, after some soul searching of his own, had finally discovered that he returned his affections and the two had officially started dating. The one thing that bothered Hiro about their relationship was keeping part of his true nature from his boyfriend, but Tadashi and Aunt Cass, while supportive of his being honest with Ezra, had cautioned him that maybe he should wait until they were a little further into the relationship and he knew that he was fully trustworthy before letting him in on the secret that the family had been fiercely protecting all these years. Six months after meeting him, Hiro was sure-Ezra was the purest, most trustworthy person he'd ever met outside of maybe his own older brother, and so tonight at the party they were hosting in the Hamada's family mansion, he was going to tell him (or, he secretly hoped, maybe even be able to show him) the truth.

"So, are we going swimming or what?" Tadashi asks, breaking Hiro out of his thoughts.

"Yes, we are!" the teen answers, glaring back at his brother who was not even trying to conceal a smirk, having guessed what, or, more appropriately, _who_ he had been daydreaming about.

"All right then, let's go!" Tadashi says, pulling open the door that led to the pool room (the room in which he had been confined until two years ago, unable to leave his watery home or risk death by dehydration. Still, it had gained a much happier atmosphere now that it was used primarily for recreation instead of an unintentional prison.)

It's all Hiro can do not to skip across the sand covered floor all the way to the water's edge, but he forces himself to match his brother's calmer, more leisurely pace. The room always looked beautiful in the morning with the sun streaming in through the glass ceiling, shining down on the tropical paradise that had been created inside to make it more comfortable for those who had, throughout the generations, been forced to be confined to it. But the teen barely even noticed his surroundings as he draws closer and closer to the pool.

By unspoken agreement, Tadashi went in first-they'd discussed this in the days and weeks leading up to today, and it was deemed safer to have the more experienced mer in the water in case something unexpected happened. Hiro couldn't help but gaze enviously at the silver tail that quickly replaced his brother's legs, internally begging and pleading to whatever higher powers existed that, after today, he'd finally have one of his own.

"You ready for this?" Tadashi asks gently, taking his brother' hesitation for nerves.

For a moment Hiro does feel a bit of panic-once he was in the water, there was no going back. Whatever happened happened, and he would have to live with the changes or lack thereof for the rest of his life. But no. He'd been waiting sixteen years for this, and no amount of fear was going to hold him back from his destiny. "Ready!" he declares before diving into the water.

He stays under for a full minute, keeping his eyes tightly shut, honestly scared to look. He finally surfaces, still keeping his eyes closed as he asks his brother, "Do you see anything?"

His brother's apologetic tone conveys his worst fears. "Hiro, I'm so sorry, but… no."

Hiro's eyes open and he looks down at himself, disappointment clogging his throat as he takes stock of himself. Same pale, skinny body, not even a trace of scales or fins. Glancing up at his bangs that were in desperate need of a trim, he could see that his hair hadn't even had the decency to change to a more mer-appropriate color like midnight blue.

"No…" All of his emotions come out in a tiny whisper, and before he can stop them he feels hot saltwater tears starting to course their way down his cheeks.

"Otouto, I'm so sorry." Tadashi reaches for him and Hiro allows himself to be drawn into an embrace, knowing that not even one of his nii-chan's hugs could fix this but willing to take whatever form of comfort he could get.

"You know that Aunt Cass didn't change at all on her sixteenth birthday," Tadashi continues, soothingly beginning to rub circles on his back. "It's not a guaranteed thing…"  
"I know." Hiro tries to make his words sound brave but instead they come out in a rather unmanly hiccup as he fights down a fresh bout of tears. "I just… Was it too much to ask for a tail? I just wanted to be like you…"

"Oh, Hiro..." Tadashi hugs him tighter. "If there was any way I could, I'd give you my tail in a heartbeat-you know that, right?"

"I know." Hiro finds himself smiling at that, despite the disappointment he was still feeling. "That's why you're such an amazing nii-chan."

"Yeah?" Tadashi smiles down at him.

"Yeah." Hiro nods and gently nuzzles into his chest. "As long as I have you, what do I need a tail for, anyways? You're the best present I could have ever asked for."

"Otouto…" Tadashi looks a little choked up himself now, and he leans down to gently peck his brother's forehead. "I love you, Hiro."

"I love you too, Dashi," Hiro answers, grinning up at him.

He didn't even realize what was happening until suddenly he hears his brother let out a sharp gasp.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he asks, instantly feeling concern pooling in his stomach.

"H-Hiro, look!"

The teen follows his brother's line of sight down to the water, and he finds himself gasping this time as he sees his own legs suffused in golden glow.

"D-Dashi?" he whispers, tightly holding onto his brother.

"It's okay, I've got you!" Tadashi promises, although they weren't really sure what if anything either of them could do about this, whatever was happening.

And then, as suddenly as it had started, the glowing faded away, and Hiro found himself looking down at-

"H-Holy frick! I-I have a tail!"

Both boys stare down at the teen's newly formed tail with it's shining blue scales for a full minute before Hiro lets out a high pitched "Squee!" of excitement. He didn't care how unmanly it sounded, all that mattered was that, by some miracle, he had gotten his tail after all!  
"OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH!" He eagerly flicks the tip of his tail out of the water, marveling at his new fins and running his fingers over the smooth scales, just trying to convince himself that it was actually real. "Tell me I'm not dreaming!"

"If you are, I am too," Tadashi answers, shaking his head in disbelief. "H-How-?"

"I don't know." Hiro shakes his head, too happy to be thinking logically. "Who cares? I got my tail!"

Even as he starts swimming in happy circles, testing out his new abilities, the older boy continues to frown in concentration.

"The reason I got my legs was because of a true love's kiss," Tadashi quietly mutters. "But if anyone should have caused something like that to happen for you, it should have been someone like Ezra!"

"Who says that it has to be romantic love, though?" Hiro counters, finally coming to a stop in front of his brother. "I mean, that's what happened for you, and that's fine. But you know I've always been a stronger believer in the love between family and friends than all that gooey lovey dovey stuff. Admittedly, I really like Ezra and maybe that's where we're headed. But who's to say that the fact that you told me as my brother that you loved me and then kissed me on the forehead couldn't have triggered it?"

"But why wouldn't this have happened all the times I've done that before?" Tadashi protests.

"Maybe 'cause it's my sixteenth birthday and sixteenth birthdays for mers are supposed to be all about magic?" Hiro answers with a shrug.

"I… Guess…?" Tadashi shakes his head, still not fully convinced but not able to think of a better explanation.

"Here, I'll prove it to you!" Hiro says. "You can turn back and forth from human to mer when you think about Fred 'cause he's the one who helped you change the first time, right?"

"Right," Tadashi agrees-they'd quickly learned that, at least to begin with, his ability to stay in one form or the other depended a lot on his emotions, and concentrating on his boyfriend had helped him with being able to control his changes (although extremely strong emotions could still cause him to switch back and forth erratically.)

"Well then, it stands to reason that, if you helped me, then if I think about you I'll be able to change back!" Hiro states.

"That… Might actually be a good test," Tadashi admits, suddenly realizing that they didn't even know if Hiro could change back.

The panicked expression on his face at that thought was all Hiro needed. Within moments, his tail separated into two halves and then, a few moments after that, his legs were back.

"I… I can't believe it," Tadashi quietly gasps. "I… I actually helped you change?"

"You did!" Hiro agrees with a grin, eagerly pulling his brother into a tight hug. "Thank you, nii-chan," he whispers, looking up at his elder sibling with pure gratitude and joy shining in his eyes.

"You're welcome, otouto," Tadashi answers softly, finally seeming to come to believe his brother's explanation as he smiles and leans down to peck him on the forehead again. "I'd do anything to make you happy."

"I know," Hiro agrees with a grin. "That's why you're the best nii-chan in the world."

Later that evening, Hiro's birthday party was winding down to a close. It had been a lot of fun-all of his and Tadashi's university friends, as well as Ezra, had come to celebrate with them. Aunt Cass had made all of Hiro's favorite foods, and everyone had enjoyed just hanging out, playing games in the pool, and generally making merriment. Still, as the hour grew late and it was almost time for everyone to head home, Hiro knew that there was one last thing that he had to do.

"Hey, Ezra?" He gently nudges his boyfriend, who had been happily sitting next to him on the edge of the pool, watching Tadashi and Fred staging a water battle of epic proportions.

"Yeah, Hiro?" The other teen turns to look at him, grinning his lopsided smile that always made Hiro's heart flutter.

"I, um… There's something I wanted to tell you… Or, maybe more accurately, show you?" Hiro answers, inside still slightly nervous about what his boyfriend might think about the fact that he was technically half fish but deciding to trust that the other man was a good enough person to be willing to accept him no matter what.

"Oh, sure!" Ezra agrees, glancing around as if looking for whatever it was that his boyfriend wanted him to see.

Standing up, Hiro offers him his hand. "C'mon, follow me," he says as he helps the other teen to his feet.

"Lead the way!" Ezra answers.

Still feeling slightly jittery, Hiro leads him over to the man made cove that made up one end of the pool, ducking underneath the artificial waterfall that acted like a curtain between it and the rest of the room.

"Wow, this place is pretty cool!" Ezra observes with a happy hum as he takes in the cave's interior, including the chairs that had been carved into the rock, halfway in and out of the water (made, unbeknownst to the teen, so that back in the old days Tadashi could actually share meals and spend time with his family.)

"Yeah, it is," Hiro agrees, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "But… This actually isn't what I wanted to show you."

"Really?" Ezra glances over at him in surprise. "Okay, sure, what did you want to show me?"

"I… It's actually something about myself that I think you should know," Hiro answers, keeping his tone cautious but firm. "It's something I'm really proud of, and even if it might seem a little weird to you, I hope that you'll be able to accept it… Because that's what you do when you love someone. You accept them, even the parts you might not understand or even like."

"Hiro, you should know by now that there's nothing you could ever do or say to make me like you any less than I do," Ezra tells him, reaching over to squeeze one of his hands in his own.

"Y-Yeah?" Hiro gives him a hopeful smile.

"Definitely," Ezra agrees with a firm nod.

"Okay then." Hiro takes a deep breath before gently pulling his hand out of Ezra's and then diving into the water. He stays under long enough for his tail to form and then surfaces, smiling shyly up at his boyfriend who was staring at him, jaw hanging completely open.

"W-What do you think?" he asks, his tail gently churning the water as he nervously waits for the other teen's response.

"W-Wow…" Ezra finally manages to get out before kneeling down next to the pool for a closer look. "Can I-?" he asks, tentatively reaching a hand out.

"Sure." Hiro smiles and flaps the end of his tail out of the water. The other boy gently runs his fingers over the scales and fins, sending tiny sparks that felt absolutely fantastic through the mer's body.

"You've never looked more beautiful," Ezra finally breathes, causing the merman to blush bright red before pulling him into an eager kiss.

Maybe it had been his brother's platonic love that had changed him, Hiro thinks as his lips softly form around Ezra's, but there was definitely something to be said for being in love with someone romantically. Both types of love were equally as important, and he couldn't have felt luckier to have both.


End file.
